bangalore journal

Bellandur residents have got RTI responses from BDA on status of three projects - flyovers at Bellandur and Devarabeesanahalli junctions, and an underpass at Kadubeesanahalli junction. The two flyover projects, which took off in September 2009, were supposed to be complete by the end of 2010. BDA later extended the deadline by another year, to December 2011. Work on Kadubeesanahalli underpass was to be complete by June 2011. But all three projects are still going on. Here is an RTI response from the BDA in December 2011 on status of the project, penalty imposition, project monitoring etc. According to this,…

Manjari Ladies Association held its New Year Party, followed by a fashion show, on January 9th at Kalanjali Showroom, Jayanagar. The fashion show was organised by Garden City College. Mangalore Jewels, JP Nagar showcased its products at the event. Aim of the show was to bring fashion consiousness among ladies irrespective of their age, and to encourage students to model for designer saree shops. Members enjoyed the event. Membership to the association is open now. ⊕

One of the events at Lalbagh that the citizens of Bangalore, always look forward to is the Republic Day Flower Show. The weather is always very pleasant, and the beautiful displays in the Glass House are a great attraction for the visitors to this lung-space of our city.Having seen the displays each year, I thought I will go and see how it's all put together. So, by 630am, I was in Lalbagh with some friends. When I told the guards that I was from Citizen Matters and wanted to cover the preparations, they allowed me into the Glass House. I…

"Have you ever tracked down and located your garbage?" questioned Akshay Yadav, coordinator, Green Commandos of Youth For Seva Organisation(YFS) to a group of residents. The question left the residents wondering.An Awareness presentation for Waste Management was held by YFS, at Raja Helix Apartments, Bilekahalli on Saturday, 14 January. The poster outside the apartment. Pic: Deepthi M S The presentation was on the importance of segregation of waste at source. Yadav explained that more than half of the daily waste was organic waste, which could be treated at home and turned into manure. He also added that by segregation, recycling…

An organic waste converter plant has been set up at Jayanagar 3rd block, next to the Veterinary Hospital. All the wet waste collected from houses, hotels, market and parks in Jayanagar will now be treated at this unit. Jayanagar Waste converter. Pic: Deepthi M S This solid waste management unit built at `40 lakhs, collects organic waste, processes them and converts them into organic manure. Minister R Ashoka, inaugurated the unit on 19th January.BBMP is distributing red and green coloured bins to around 1500 houses in Jayanagar. Residents are asked to put in their dry waste such as paper, glass…

There's more to being a parent than posing prettily with the cherub, wrote a slightly hassled friend on Facebook. The reason? Her son's upcoming birthday or at least the decision making process of it. I could not resist an evil and slightly relieved laugh. So it wasn't just me who dreaded the birthday juggernaut- the planning, the presents, the cake, the theme and of course, the return gift, which is a must give these days unless you have been living under a rock or are very brave and do not care for public opinion, especially from pint sized people.At our…

Citizen Matters is doing a quick dipstick survey to assess trends regarding private school fee changes in Bangalore for 2012-13. We're compiling responses to this survey as part of our inquiry.This survey will take no more than a minute or two. This run of the survey closes Monday Jan 23rd. Please click here to go into the survey.tinyurl.com/7ppucls

Sandwichwallas, a fast food joint at JP Nagar offers toasted sandwiches prepared in a homemade style, breaking away from the usual grilled sandwiches. It also features on its menu tasty pizzas, extremely delicious garlic bread, chats and coolers. The price here is enormously reasonable and the food you get here is worth every single pie you pay. A vegetable sandwich is priced at just Rs 15. Not a single dish on the menu would exceed Rs 40. This is how a sandwich is prepared at Sandwichwallas. Pic: Shruti Mohan "We have about 37 different kinds of toasted sandwiches and everything…

"Every morning in Africa, when a Gazelle wakes up, it knows it must run faster than the fastest lion or it will be killed. Every morning a Lion wakes up, it knows it must outrun the slowest Gazelle or it will starve to death. It doesn't matter whether you are a Lion or a Gazelle... when the sun comes up, you'd better be running."We've heard this quoted every time when talk veers about running. For humans though, running is not a means for survival, but it certainly is a means for healthy living.I am a resident of Chaithanya Samarpan, a…

Parks have turned out to be the new ‘play' area for BBMP. Work order was issued in 2008-09 for installing play equipments for twenty lakh rupees at the first block park (earlier known as Wipro park). The equipments were however not installed till December 2011. The palike has spent over one crore rupees (1,30,48,825) on the Koramangala 1st block park between 2007 and 2010. Most of which is for the work that was never done. The play equipments in 1st block Park were not installed for three years. Pic; Padmalatha Ravi In the era multi-crore scams this might seem like…